Instructors Guide – Creative Strategy for Video Training

Creative Strategy

Learn how a strong creative foundation and workable video ideas can help your training. This is a framework that can help you in the development of your own video courses. Whether it’s a new course or an existing course run it through these fundamentals to see how you might improve your courses with video. You can come back to this anytime and use it as a filter for your new course ideas or revisit a course you’ve made.

Conversation – Are you Speaking directly to your audience?

Travitor is a social platform and viewers often see you as an expert inside the computer. If you can turn to the camera and talk directly to the audience, it can be a powerful way to bond with learners and build loyalty. But, it’s not about talking to the lens like any host or reporter, it's about talking specifically to your viewers and maybe sometimes calling a few of them out by name. Even scripted narrative content can be conversational.
Learn more on how to Vlog.

Collaboration – Is there a way to involve the audience in your training videos?

One of the cool things about making stuff on Travitor is that you can get the audience to participate. You can do this in a lot of different ways. From answering questions to featuring them in your video. You can also ask them for ideas on what you should make next. It's a good idea to listen to your audience and take into consideration what they want to see. Being interactive shows them that you’re willing to involve them creatively and this also helps to build loyalty. Learn more on how to make Q&A videos.

So what ways can you be interactive? Write down a few ways that your course or series could involve the audience.  It can be a lot of fun for your viewers and good for your course. 

Consistency – Are there strong, recurring elements?

Consistency is critical to a course's success. But consistency means different things depending on who you ask. Some say it's all about consistency of schedule, that you’ve got to release your videos on specific days of the week. This works because like traditional TV shows, you’re tapping into the rhythm of peoples lives. It creates a sense of expectation and anticipation. For example, it’s Friday and I know that you upload new videos training every Friday. Other creators will tell you consistency is all about having the same personality or face of a course. The videos may change but the same person or people are in them every time. There are also consistent formats, from lesson to lesson. Each also has a consistent opening sequence, consistent segments within the video, consistent branding and consistent taglines. Lastly, there’s consistency of voice. Not about literal voice, but a tone or theme to the course that never changes. So what are the ways your videos will be consistent from video to video?

Targeting – Is there a clearly defined audience?

Usually, when you first make a video, you want as many people as possible to see it, right? But creators have seen that it's often more effective to target certain groups. People who are passionate about who they are, or what they do. This could be large groups for sales and service or small groups, such as just Managers. What are groups you’d be interested in reaching with your courses? Is there an underserved audience out there that you could tap into?

Sharing – Will viewers share your course?

Word of mouth is powerful because people are learning about you from the people they trust the most. Now it's easy to say yes they’re going to share my video because they’ll be awesome, but to really predict if your viewers will share, ask yourself why? Will they relate to it? Is it about a topic or trend that people are currently talking about? Will it make viewers laugh? Is it really useful somehow? It's good to consider all of these questions. Also, try this. Take a look at the last thing you shared on social media. What was it and why did you share it? 

Ask yourself can you summarize what this video is all about in one sentence that is easily understood and also compelling in a way that people will want to share the video. The point is if you can’t summarize it in one sentence then it’s going to take someone longer to explain it when they’re trying to share it. You want to create a video that from a concept standpoint is easy to share. So before you’ve written a script, try to get into the heads of viewers and figure out why they might share it. What will your audience write when they share your video? Take a few minutes to brainstorm and write those share statements down. Because if you can make your videos shareable, it can really help grow your learners.

Discoverability – Will your courses get found through search or related courses?

This fundamental is all about seeing what you can do to help your courses get served in either search results or related courses. If you can piggy back on hot topics by addressing them in your videos, you can tap into the rush of people looking for those subjects. Being aware of current events or topics that are always popular can help your videos get discovered. One other tip. If you want your videos to be discoverable, be sure to become an optimization expert. Know how to write effective titles, descriptions, and tags.

Accessibility – Can every lesson be fully appreciated by a brand new viewer?

Have you ever watched a TV show and you had no idea what was going on because you hadn’t seen the first three seasons? This fundamental is all about making sure your videos always welcome to new viewers. It's important because people might find any random lesson of yours you use for another course. And they may not know anything about the course. So it's helpful to make sure you don’t leave those people in the dark. Try to make each video fully understandable to new viewers. So, will each lesson be understood and appreciated by a new viewer, yes or no?

Inspiration – Is the idea coming from a place of genuine interest?

The most successful creators are often overflowing with enthusiasm around what they do. It’s powerful because true passion shows through on camera and if you love the topic, your videos will probably be a lot easier and a lot more fun to make. Consider brainstorming ideas that are well within what you love and what you love to talk about. Look at your favorite hobbies, sports, TV shows, and blogs. If you’re going to come up with something that you think people want, but you’re not going to want to do it then it’s not a good idea for you. It has to be a good idea for you first and then a good idea for the audience second. So inspiration. Is your idea coming from a place of genuine interest?

Need help? For help with filming and editing your course, Travitor offers a special discounted rate for Travitor customers! Learn more